LIFE LESSONS | YOUTHFULNESS

4 Effective Ways To Stay Young For Ever

Based on my 66 years of experience.

Popular culture adores youth and youthful people. And so do I.

After WWII, the men were horny and the women receptive; thus, the baby boom emerged and filled the radiowaves, TV and massive stadiums for bands to play.

Suddenly (if you think nine months of waiting for delivery can be sudden), many young people grew like mushrooms.

Some of them even ate mushrooms — but that’s another story.

I was there, and I was young then. I remember.

The Monkeys sang in the pre-information age, ‘we are the Monkeys, and we have something to say,’ to declare that adults should take young people seriously.

Funny enough, very middle-aged business people created the Monkeys as a diluted carbon copy of The Beatles. Young people had very little to say about that. Because the Beatles started to be a bit dangerous: they got older and lost their innocence — so to speak.

Middle-aged people do like young people when they are naive and blue-eyed (metaphorically). Abuse is more convenient when the object is — an object and considered disposable.

But I am not here to talk about the sins of our fathers, uncles, aunties and, to some extent — me. I want to give you some views on how you can stay young but not naive and blue-eyed.

First, but a bit final way to stay young: die young

Die before you reach 28. It is a tough call, but those who die young remain young in the memory of those who survive.

Jimi Hendrix is still young and plays heavenly well.

However, if you want to continue living and have no suicidal tendencies, you must find other ways to stay fresh.

Second, a more sustainable way to stay young: meet young

Avoid being with others of your generation or older. It is easy because it’s boring to be with people of the same age group: you know all the complaints, discomforts and reasons for being grumpy. So why bother?

Instead, seek the company of younger people. It can be challenging because they see you as predator or just weird.

The worst thing about this method is to pretend to be like young people. They smell the rat, i.e. your desperation if you try to dress, talk or walk like them.

I can tell that the hip replacement does not make you a break-dancer (if there is such a thing anymore as break-dance).

If you avoid being a surgically enhanced living corpse, you might meet some young people who accept you. The best way to get accepted and taken not seriously but sincerely is to listen a lot. Listen even to new music.

You might be surprised by what gems you might find.

This second method requires some help, which will come from your nephews, nieces or any young person from the neighbourhood whose parents don’t report you immediately to the authorities.

Third, this is the most challenging way to stay young: respect young

Sometimes we meet young people but deep down think them inferior despite our sincere efforts to listen to them and understand them. We know more, have experienced more, and are more mature (whatever that means). We have all the explanations and answers, or so we think.

That is the turning point.

If you sniff this bias in your mind, then there is hope. You can start respecting young people and treating them as equals. The learning begins from here.

Look at David Attenborough. He is younger than most in their 30s. And how he communicated with Greta Thurnberg is a masterclass of how to stay young and grow younger every decade you live.

Fourth, this is the most gratifying way to stay young: be curious

Curiosity precedes youtfulness.

If you are curious about the life around you, you don’t have time to become old.

Your body may signal decay, and you know that the best-before-date of your bladder is long gone when you crawl to the toilet thrice a night. But that’s only your body.

“Researchers once believed that the creation of new brain cells only happened in young people. But recent studies show that this process, called neurogenesis, continues even as people age.” — Better Aging

A curious person creates new neural pathways regardless of age. We can live each day to the fullest if we look at every day as a unique opportunity to see, smell, feel, touch, taste and experience things like we would do it for the first time.

The secret of staying young is in this realisation that everything we experience is new and has never happened to us precisely the same way.

The giant trap of getting old is the assumption that there is nothing new in our lives, and if we don’t look to the future with hope and be horny for new experiences.

Everything is new, every day and all the time. And that’s the secret of being young at heart. Let your body do its thing, but you are not your body, but more.

My mentor in life, Daisaku Ikeda, was 65 when he set himself a new task. He wanted to document his quest to promote peace, culture and education by writing his life story as a novel that would have 30 volumes. A couple of years ago, he completed the series. He was over 90 at that time.

“I believe youth can last a lifetime. Inner youthfulness is not a matter of our physical age. Rather, it is determined by the passion with which we live, the enthusiasm with which we learn, the freshness and energy with which we advance towards our chosen goals in life.” — Daisaku Ikeda, President of the SGI.

There it is, your four ways to stay forever young.

1) Let your years die, but keep the spirit alive.

2) Meet young people,

3) respect them and

4) be curious about ageing without losing hope for the future.

Start something new, and young people have challenges keeping up with you. And take young people seriously, but note yourself because you don’t have time anymore for that. Life, after all, is a joyful ride with belly laughs before we kick the bucket.

I am a curiosity expert; if you want to know how I can help you to become a more curious leader, creative and confident thinker, book a free discovery meeting with me here.

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